John Jefferson
Inset: One of the “severely malnourished” teen sons of Tracy and Joshua Dechant (Lehigh County DA’s Office). Background: The home where the teens lived with the Dechants (Google Maps).
A Pennsylvania couple has been arrested for allegedly torturing two teenage boys in their care through physical abuse, starvation, and forcing them to stay outside naked in freezing temperatures.
Joshua Dechant, 36, and Tracy Dechant, 42, were taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree criminal conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, intimidation of a witness, endangering the welfare of children, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment of a minor, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, authorities announced.
Authorities said the twin 15-year-old victims were both nearly 100 pounds underweight.
According to a news release from the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, troopers with the Pennsylvania State Police on Jan. 22 responded to a call at a home in the 1200 block of Divot Drive in Lower Macungie Township regarding a teenage boy running around the neighborhood “mostly naked.”
At some point, the child knocked on a neighbor’s door and asked for help and the neighbor called 911.
Upon arriving at the scene, authorities made contact with the teen — referred to in court documents as Victim 1 — who allegedly described some of the abuse he had suffered.
“Victim 1 told troopers that his stepfather, Joshua Dechant, forced him to go outside naked as a form of punishment,” the release states. “At the time this occurred on Jan. 22, 2025, the temperature outside was in the single digits. Victim 1 told troopers he was outside for approximately 20 minutes and his feet were extremely red from the cold and snow.”
The responding troopers noted that the victim appeared “very malnourished and extremely thin.”
“Neighbors told police that Victim 1 had knocked on their door seeking help and once inside the home, Victim 1 would not stop eating,” according to the release.
The child was transported to a local hospital where he was found to be in “significant medical distress,” District Attorney Gavin Holihan said during a Friday news conference. Authorities soon made contact with the boy’s mother, Tracy Dechant, and stepfather, Joshua Dechant, which is when they found the victim’s twin brother, who was said to be in the same type of physical condition.
Both victims spoke with Child Protective Services and provided details about the alleged abuse, which included “the denial of food and water, using the withdrawal of food and water as punishment for the boys, forcing them to walk around inside and outside the house naked as punishment, forcing them to stand outside naked in freezing temperatures, and forcing them to sleep on the floor and share a single blanket between the two boys,” Holihan said.
The doctors who treated the boys told investigators that their condition corroborated the allegations they made about their mother and stepfather.
When weighed at the hospital, one of the boys weighed 53 pounds while the other weighed 55 pounds. Doctors told investigators that given their age and size, both teens should have weighed about 143 pounds. Prosecutors said that over the last eight years, both kids had only gained about 10 pounds.
“These two boys combined weighed about the same as an average healthy 12-year-old boy should be,” Holihan said.
The teens were also diagnosed with scurvy and heart arrhythmias due to malnutrition, prosecutors said, adding that if left untreated, the medical issues would have “resulted in their deaths.”
The victims’ older sister, who has not lived in the house for more than a year, allegedly told authorities that she suffered similar treatment at the hands of her mother and stepfather.
The Dechants were booked into Lehigh County Jail on Friday afternoon and their bonds were set at $200,000 each. They are scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.
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